Well, after getting Mary into school, the next thing we needed to do was find a church.  We had decided that if the first one didn’t feel right, we would go to the next one.  The closest was located in Monrovia, the next city over from Duarte.  So, off to Immaculate Conception Church we went.  They referred to the church as I. C. and it was a pretty large one.  We found out the times for services and there were 7 masses each weekend!  Two of them were in Spanish, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  We decided to go to the second mass (in English) on Sunday.

The pews were situated in the shape of a cross with the widest and longest set of pews straight out from the altar.  The other two sets of pews were perpendicular going out on each side of the altar.

When we arrived for the first time, we sat in the front row on the west (left) side of the church.  We were early and very few people were there.  We sat, prayed and waited for the congregation to arrive.  Then mass began, slightly late.

Afterward, we mingled with the rest of the congregation.  Everyone was so friendly and welcoming!  Fiesta was in 2 weeks and they signed us up to work at the Coke booth.  It was a three-day, major fundraiser for the church and school.   This was an annual event with food booths, game booths, bingo in the gym and carnival rides.  The kids were so excited and we already felt like this was our family.  We were welcomed by so many people.  There were many parishioners from Mexico and the Philippines in the parish.  The food booths included ethnic foods but of course there were hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages etc. As we got into our car to leave for home, I realized that we had just attended our first church service and we had found home.